Mediumship has entered the digital age. Laptops and apps are now part of message work. I currently use computers to record readings, instead of taping sessions on cassettes because fewer people own cassette players these days. Plus, I’ve found a safe, secure way to turn readings into digital files that only the client and myself can access. However, that hasn’t stopped spirit people from popping into those digital readings. Sometimes, clients call me later with comments like, "Who was the other voice I hear whispering in the background?"

Basically, here’s how my system works: When I do an in-person reading or over the phone using Skype, I record the message using an external high quality microphone hooked into my computer, so it picks up all the sounds in the reading room. Next, utilizing a special computer program, the recording is saved as an MP3 file, and assigned a special password that that only the client and myself know. Then I email the file to the client.

The computer microphone is far superior to the mike on my cassette recorder, which does work quite well in one-on-one sessions when my client is sitting across the desk from me in my office. Yet there have been occasions when I’ve been surprised at sounds that recorder has picked up. When spirit wants to be heard, it doesn’t matter if you use a microphone worth a hundred dollars or something you bought at a garage sale for a couple bucks – sounds from beyond the veil will get through.

I remember one client – I’ll call her Edie – called me a couple hours after her reading and asked, "Was there a baby in your building?"

Not since about 1992, I felt like telling her, but said, "No."

Edie was silent a moment. "There’s a baby crying on the tape. It sounds like it’s crying in another room. It goes on for about ten seconds and then stops. I wondered if it had woken up from a nap."

Again I assured Edie there was no baby in the building. And I didn’t think it was coming from outside, because the reading was done in winter, and all the office windows were closed.

A year later, when Edie came back for another session, I learned the story. During the previous reading, the baby crying sound had occurred when I was talking about her sister – who was living. Unknown to Edie at the time, her sister had a miscarriage three months ago.

Other sounds that clients have reported on their digital files include whispers, an engine roaring, a jet taking off, and a galloping horse. Of course, not every reading has had these added sounds. Though I bet other clients have heard puzzling things, but chalked the noises up to natural causes and didn’t report them to me.

Whether or not more spirit sounds will come through during computer-aided readings remains to be seen – or heard. But I do know some people encourage spirit to join the digital age by leaving their computers on all night, hoping spirit will stop by to tap out a message on the keyboard. And a meditation group in England puts a laptop in the middle of their circle, then goes into trance and invites spirit to communicate with them via the screen. I haven’t talked to those folks in years; I wonder how their experiment has been progressing.

I have to wonder – spirit is energy, and computers run on energy, and just as more people have been capturing orbs on electronic digital cameras, will more people now be able to meet spirit using sophisticated electronic computer equipment?

That’s the beauty of digital technology. Put simply, it’s all just energy.